"The First Christmas" Book Review

Christmas is coming!  WooHoo!!!  My FAVORITE time of year!  I love decorating the Christmas tree, putting out the nativities I've collected, getting out the Christmas dishes, mugs, etc.  And I LOVE sharing Christmas traditions with my kids!  One of my favorites is giving them new Christmas books each year.  While I love cute little books about snowmen or reindeer, I make sure that we have plenty of books that talk about the REAL meaning and the REAL story of Christmas.  "The Firs Christmas," by Janice D. Green fits right into that category!

Here's what I liked about this book:
1.) It covers the story, starting with the angel Gabriel appearing to Zachariah to foretell the birth of John the Baptist and goes all the way though to the visit to Jesus by the Wise Men.  (One thing I love is that Mrs. Green is accurate in her discussion of the Wise Men and when they arrived.  She describes Jesus as older (at least many months old) when the Wise Men arrived - which is accurate considering how long it would take them to travel that far.
2.) The illustrations are cute.  I noticed as I was reading the book that the pictures appeared to be coloring pages.  Although that may seem very simple, I thought it was very cute and would help draw kids into the story.  (At the end of the book I found out why the pictures appear the way they do.  But I won't spoil that for you.  I'll just say it added even more interest to the pictures.)
3.) Each page (part of the story) ends with a question for the kids.  For example, on the page that discusses how people must have looked at Mary unkindly because she was unmarried and pregnant, the question is: "Were you ever scolded when you hadn't done anything wrong?  How did you feel?  How do you think Mary felt when people looked at her and whispered to each other?"  These are great questions that help the kids - and parents - really empathize with the people in the story.  They are also great conversation starters for the family.
4.) The book ends with information on how to make a "First Christmas Bible Quilt" - a great activity for the whole family to enjoy together!

I received a copy of this book, free of charge, from BookCrash in exchange for my honest review.